Although conventional efforts and measures dealing with environmental problems and the ecological crisis are necessary, they are not sufficient. They do not deal with the fundamentals of the problems and crisis. They do not address the causes and developments that lie behind the environmental problems and crisis we face today. The conventional approach consists of managing from crisis to crisis, controlling only symptoms and consequences. Conventional efforts and measures deal with environmental problems and the ecological crisis only at the socio-cultural level in political, economic, scientific and technological terms. They do not address the human causes and developments behind the problems and crisis. The natural environment is not the problem, we are. The problem is the way we understand and manage human existence and development. Environmental problems, difficulties and crises are the results and consequences of our actions, of how we understand and manage our existence and development. Conventional measures controlling symptoms and consequences need to provide the time for the long-term development and change to address the causes behind the environmental crisis, the time required to change the way we understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development. On their own conventional measures only buy time for a way of understanding and managing existence and development that is not sustainable.
The way we traditionally and today understand and manage human existence and development contradicts, conflicts with and falls short of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence, causing persisting and growing problems and difficulties for the natural environment, as well as for the individual, societies and the human species. It is leading to changes in nature, natural processes and developments that in the long-term will render the natural environment of the Earth uninhabitable for human beings.
Essentially, we meet non-material mental needs in material ways, exploiting and consuming natural material resources beyond actual human material needs. And we try to create in the world around us, in socio-cultural and physical-material terms, what by nature we must establish individually in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort. We try to establish a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty, security and confidence not individually in the mind and mental existence, but externally in the world around us. Attempting to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. In the process we interfere with nature, natural forces, processes and developments and we degrade the natural environment beyond what is required to understand and manage human existence.
The problem is, we fail to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. We fail to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It is the place where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. The mind and mental existence is where we make choices and decisions, where we define goals and objectives, where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we manage and conduct ourselves individually, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other, and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. The mind and mental existence is the place where problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings and where answers and solutions need to start.
Dealing with persisting and growing environmental problems, addressing the underlying causes and developments, and creating the necessary conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future requires changing the way we understand and manage human existence and development. It requires understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways. Understanding and managing existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions, everything in life we face and we have to deal with, we do and we engage in, at the level and within the context of understanding and managing in the first instance the mind and mental existence.
It requires changing how traditionally we understand and manage existence and development. Understanding and managing them from the top down and from the inside out, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and disconnected way in the abstract. Traditionally we understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development from the human-created socio-cultural level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices, to understand and manage ourselves individually, the mind and mental existence. We divide and separate a connected, integrated and interacting reality and conditions of existence into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study, and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, defined and governed by different, competing and conflicting assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices.
Instead, we need to understand and manage ourselves, our existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. We must understand and manage human existence and development at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence, that lie behind and that are reflected in our experience, the experience of every human being. Moreover, we need to understand and manage them from within the mind and mental existence. Understanding and managing in the first instance the mind and mental existence, where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. It is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and individually take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we need to consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. It is where problems and difficulties, errors and mistakes have their roots and beginnings and where answers and solutions must start.
Understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways requires understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside as reflected in individual experience. Meeting non-material mental needs in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, not externally in material ways. It requires establishing and maintaining a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty, security and confidence individually in the mind and mental existence. Not trying to meet them externally, in socio-cultural and physical-material ways through creating the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. Understanding and managing existence and development in sustainable, secure and peaceful ways involves establishing, in everything we do and we engage in, first the necessary internal mental conditions, clarity of mind and understanding, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, others and the world around us.
Establishing the necessary conditions for a sustainable future requires developing the necessary conceptual foundation and mental capacity. Developing, exercising and practicing the understanding, the natural human mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices required to understand and manage human existence and development from the inside out and from the ground up, in their essence, in depth and detail, in an integrated way, not from the top down and from the outside in, in a fragmented way in the abstract. To understand and manage human affairs, our existence and development in ways that do not contradict, conflict with or fall short of the natural conditions of existence, within the natural parameters, the boundaries and limits of human existence set by nature.
Creating the necessary conditions for a sustainable, secure and peaceful future requires making the 21st Century the Century of the mind, mental existence and mental development. Not the scientific study of the mind as a natural phenomena or just another human organ, but understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside as the place where we consciously exist and act, where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
De-Stigmatizing Mental Problems and Demystifying the Mind and Mental Existence
The Institute for Human Conceptual and Mental Development (IHCMD) has developed a free public service website, Mental Problems / Problems of the Mind (http://www.ihcmd.org/mentalproblems), to deal with mental problems, improve mental conditions and states of mind. The objective of the website is to de-stigmatize mental problems and demystify the mind, mental existence and mental development through active individual mental engagement, individual mental work and effort understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. The purpose of the website is to help, guide and direct the individual to deal with mental problems and difficulties, understand and manage the mind and mental existence, establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, establish clarity of mind and understanding from the inside.
The website provides a different approach, view and understanding of dealing with mental problems, the mind and mental existence that go beyond the traditional approach of psychology and psychiatry. The approach goes beyond the traditional approach of treatment from the outside by experts and specialists, psychologists and psychiatrists, through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatric medication. Instead, it involves individually understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside through active individual mental engagement, individual mental work and effort. The approach goes beyond instant relief and treatment of symptoms and consequences to address deeper-rooted causes and developments, changing what we do in the mind and mental existence, mental behaviour and actions. It involves dealing with mental conditions, demands and challenges, mental problems and difficulties when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger mental problems requiring outside help, treatment by experts and specialists. The approach consists of understanding and managing the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.
The website provides information and resources to deal with mental problems and difficulties, improve mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence through active individual mental engagement understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. Mental problems – mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression – are discussed in terms of individual experiences and feelings of them, the nature and causes behind them, the results and consequences of them, and the answers and solutions to them. Mental problems are dealt with through a set of different but related steps, exercises and practices: considering and dealing with daily mental problems and difficulties; considering past mental problems; and establishing a clear picture and understanding of the mind and mental existence – nature, conditions, needs, demands and challenges, our role and responsibility in them.
Improving mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence are discussed in terms of daily managing the mind and mental existence, making understanding and managing mental problems, the mind and mental existence part of daily life, daily work and effort. Dealing with mental conditions, needs, demands, challenges and difficulties before they develop into larger problems and crises. Establishing and maintaining the necessary internal mental conditions in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other and the world around us. Considering and making sense of what enters the mind and awareness – experience, perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices and engaging in the required mental work and effort.
Engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving individual understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving whenever necessary and required the understanding, the mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practice, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.
The website provides a different approach, view and understanding of dealing with mental problems, the mind and mental existence that go beyond the traditional approach of psychology and psychiatry. The approach goes beyond the traditional approach of treatment from the outside by experts and specialists, psychologists and psychiatrists, through psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatric medication. Instead, it involves individually understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside through active individual mental engagement, individual mental work and effort. The approach goes beyond instant relief and treatment of symptoms and consequences to address deeper-rooted causes and developments, changing what we do in the mind and mental existence, mental behaviour and actions. It involves dealing with mental conditions, demands and challenges, mental problems and difficulties when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger mental problems requiring outside help, treatment by experts and specialists. The approach consists of understanding and managing the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.
The website provides information and resources to deal with mental problems and difficulties, improve mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and actions, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence through active individual mental engagement understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside. Mental problems – mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression – are discussed in terms of individual experiences and feelings of them, the nature and causes behind them, the results and consequences of them, and the answers and solutions to them. Mental problems are dealt with through a set of different but related steps, exercises and practices: considering and dealing with daily mental problems and difficulties; considering past mental problems; and establishing a clear picture and understanding of the mind and mental existence – nature, conditions, needs, demands and challenges, our role and responsibility in them.
Improving mental conditions and states of mind, mental performance, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort, mental effectiveness, efficiency and confidence are discussed in terms of daily managing the mind and mental existence, making understanding and managing mental problems, the mind and mental existence part of daily life, daily work and effort. Dealing with mental conditions, needs, demands, challenges and difficulties before they develop into larger problems and crises. Establishing and maintaining the necessary internal mental conditions in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other and the world around us. Considering and making sense of what enters the mind and awareness – experience, perceptions, sensations, feelings, thoughts and ideas, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices and engaging in the required mental work and effort.
Engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving individual understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving whenever necessary and required the understanding, the mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practice, mental behaviour and action, mental work and effort we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them. Reconsidering, updating, correcting, changing and improving the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Real Causes Behind the Global Financial Crisis
The current global financial crisis started in the United States with the sub-prime mortgage crisis and spread around the world, affecting financial institutions and banks globally. It led to financial institutions and banks around the world running out of money to meet their financial obligations. Governments stepped in with huge rescue packages running in the billions to save financial institutions and banks from bankruptcy. Guaranteeing savings deposits to prevent a run on banks, people withdrawing their savings and deepening the banks’ cash crisis, securing inter-bank loans to prevent the financial system from collapsing, and taking a stake in or nationalizing banks and financial institutions in return for limits on executive salaries and bonus package and curb high risk investment schemes. In addition, efforts are under way to revamp the international financial system, updating the Breton Woods institutions, and tighten up financial market rules and regulations and account practices.
Nature of the Crisis
The sub-prime mortgage crisis consisted of mortgages being sold to people not in a position to repay them. They were sold to people who lacked the necessary long-term, stable income to pay back the mortgages they took on. People who lacked any assets and who did not have sufficient income to pay even the monthly interests on their mortgages. The results were growing mortgage defaults and foreclosures. In turn which led to a drop in real estate prices, a loss in the value of repossessed houses, and a loss of value of the equity behind the mortgages.
How did the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States lead to the global financial crisis, pushing banks and financial institutions around the world close to insolvency?
The sub-prime mortgages were securitized, translated into financial securities, asset-backed securities, which were sold around the world. Translating debts into securities that are sold as investments is a long established practice in the financial sector, selling rights to future cash flows, in this case mortgage payments, to raise capital for further investment. In addition to mortgages, car loans and credit card loans or debts are routinely securitized, translated into investment products that are sold at the market to raise capital for further loans and investments. Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) are the principle institutions in the United States to expand the secondary market for securitized mortgages to raise capital for expanding mortgage demands. The securitized sub-prime mortgages were bundled together with other securities into investment products that were sold around the world to institutional investors looking to increase profits.
Banks and financial institutions moreover tend to operate on leverage, borrowing money to invest in the financial market, in securities to increase their profits. They leverage or borrow beyond their capital or equity, leaving them over-extended. Many banks and financial institutions to increase their profits had debt loads many times larger than their assets or capital. Goldman Sachs, for example, used about $40 billion of equity or capital as the foundation for $1.1 trillion in investment, while Merrill Lynch, the most leveraged, had $1 trillion of investment on around $30 billion of capital. In addition, to increase their profits financial institutions engage in risky investment schemes and strategies, such as margin buying, short-selling, derivatives, hedge-funds, etc. When a crisis hits anywhere in the system and they cannot realize a profit on their investments, banks and financial institutions find themselves short of money to meet their financial obligations.
In addition to these practices massive funds are taken out of the system at every point, commission fees to sell sub-prime mortgages, fees for the initial mortgage loans, fees for the securitization of the sub-prime mortgages, transaction fees, and financial management fees, as well as large salaries bonuses for executives and traders of the financial institutions and banks. When the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit financial institutions and banks that had invested in securities, which included securitized sub-prime mortgages, found themselves in a cash crisis, pushing them to the edge of insolvency and bankruptcy.
The problem was everyone from sub-prime mortgage holders to banks and financial institutions overextended themselves financially. Committing themselves financially beyond their means and abilities, to a point where they could no longer meet their financial obligations. Speculating on doubtful future income. The growing rate of defaults by sub-prime mortgage holders, foreclosure on their houses and the subsequent drop in real estate prices rippled through the whole financial system hitting everyone, including financial institutions and banks that were heavily overextended. It deflated the value of investment assets leading to a cash crisis, insufficient cash flows to meet financial obligations.
Causes behind the Crisis
The causes behind the crisis it is suggested lie in unregulated financial and monetary markets, an out of date monetary and financial system and institutions. Financial and monetary market rules and regulations, accounting practices and an international financial system that are out of date in a globalizing world. A financial system, market rules and regulations that do not reflect a changing world of globalization, global financial flows, trade and exchange, and increasingly high-risk investment strategies and activities by financial institutions and banks.
At bottom what lies behind sub-prime mortgages and high risk financial investments strategies and practices, the perception is, is greed, an excessive desire to acquire or possess more in material-financial wealth, goods and values than one needs or deserves, leading to corruption and fraud. Questionable and fraudulent investment activities, cutthroat competition, so the argument, is driven by unrestrained and out of control greed for ever-higher profits.
Greed, the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then one needs, is viewed as part of human nature. Something we cannot really control or do much about, beyond trying to control it through rules, regulations, morals and ethics, external rules and regulations and a set of moral and ethical standards by which to live. In reality, while greed is part of our nature, we are not driven by nature to act on greed, an urge to acquire more in material-financial goods and wealth than we need. Although greed is something we are capable of, it does not explain why we act on it. We are not driven by nature to do so. The question is why do we act on greed? What lies behind and drives the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial goods and wealth then we need? This is where the real causes, as well as the answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie.
The urge to acquire and possess more than we require must be driven by some unfulfilled natural or basic needs. The question is, what unfulfilled needs do we try to meet through acquiring and possessing more in material-financial resources, goods and wealth than we need, and why are we unable or fail to meet them? The answer lies in how we understand and manage human existence and development. Specifically, it lies in how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. It lies in how we understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. The mind and mental existence is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what individually we do and engage in. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we understand the conditions, demands and challenges of our existence and the world around us and how we deal with them. It defines and governs how we conduct ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment.
The answer to what drives us to act on greed lies in failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage the role and responsibility in our mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage. As a result we try to meet non-material mental needs that we must meet in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, externally through the possession, accumulation and consumption of material-financial resources, goods and values. The consequences are growing unmet mental needs, leading to a never satisfied, growing and accelerating urge for material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values.
Traditionally we understand and manage existence and development from the top down and from the outside in, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and dissociated way in the abstract. We understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions, everything we face and we have to deal with, we do and we engage in, from the human-created socio-cultural, political, economic, scientific and technological level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices, to understand and manage ourselves, the mind and mental existence. We divide and separate an integrated, related and interacting reality into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, each defined and governed by different and competing assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices.
We fail to establish the necessary internal mental conditions before engaging and dealing with external conditions and the world around us. Instead, we try to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. We try collectively to create externally in the world around us what by nature we must establish individually in the mind and mental existence.
We fail to establish a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty and security internally in the mind and mental existence where we are in charge and in control. Instead we try to establish them externally in the world around us. We do not deal with feelings of disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety and frustration where they occur, in the mind and mental existence, but externally in the world around us. We try to deal with them through managing, controlling and directing the world around us and the accumulation, possession, control and consumption of socio-cultural positions, roles, functions, power and prestige, and material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values. In the process we meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms, instead of meeting them in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort.
The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis are the same causes and developments that lie behind the environmental, cultural, political and social problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations, as well as growing mental health problems we face today. Failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside, and trying to meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation over different and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, convention and practices, different ways of understanding and managing existence and development, different ways of understanding the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation, within and across societies, over the possession, control, accumulation and consumption of natural resources and material-financial goods, values and wealth. Leading to cultural, social and political problems, difficulties and crisis, conflicts and confrontations.
Mental health problems in turn are the results of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Failing to understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. Failing to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, leading to persisting and growing mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression.
The environmental problems, difficulties and crisis we face are the result of exploiting natural material resources and interfering in nature and the natural environment beyond what is required to manage and sustain human existence. They are the result of meeting non-material mental needs in material ways and trying to create externally in the world around us what we must establish and maintain in the mind and mental existence. They are the result of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in. Failing to meet non-material mental needs in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, we exploit natural resources beyond actual human material needs. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, we interfere in nature, natural forces, processes and developments and we degrade the natural environment trying to rearrange, control and direct the world around us, nature and the natural environment. Trying to create the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance, to control, overcome and move beyond the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence we must deal with in the mind and mental existence.
The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis also lie behind the resurgence of religion, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and religious-cultural conflicts and confrontations. The promise of the Enlightenment, science and the scientific approach leading to improvements in the human condition and human affairs through a better understanding and control of the natural world, nature and the natural environment, did not materialize. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century we experience growing cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, difficulties, crises and instability. The perception is the answers and solutions to the human condition and improving human affairs do not lie in science. Instead, we need to return to religion, the only other alternative. The problems and difficulties we face today are seen to be the result and consequences of disconnecting science from religion. While science can tell us about the material world, its structure and workings, natural forces, processes and developments, so the argument, it cannot explain the purpose and direction of life and or tell us how to behave and act.
In reality, the problems, difficulties, conflicts and confrontations, crises and instabilities in human affairs lie in the failure to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, our role and responsibility in them. The failure to improve the human condition does not lie in science or disconnecting science from religion. It lies in failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence. It lies in failing to understand and manage where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Be actively engaged and take responsibility for the beliefs, views and understanding we develop, on which we rely and how we develop them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, and the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. The problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts, confrontations and instabilities lie in trying to meet non-material mental needs in physical-material ways, and creating externally in the world around us, in socio-cultural and physical-material terms what we must establish and maintain individually in the mind and mental existence. With an expanding global human population it leads to growing cultural, political, social and economic competition, conflict and confrontation, problems, difficulties and crises. It leads to growing environmental problems and difficulties, and accelerated exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, growing interference in and degradation of the natural environment.
Direction of the Answers and Solutions to the Crisis
The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie in changing how we understand and manage existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. Changing how traditionally we understand and manage human existence and development, how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence also is the direction of the answers and solutions addressing the cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, conflicts and confrontations we face.
The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis require more than instant relief and measures to control symptoms and consequences. They require addressing the underlying causes and developments. Particularly if the answers and solutions of today are not to become the causes of the problems, difficulties and crisis of tomorrow, as has always been the case in the past, as evidenced by the bust and boom cycles of the past that can be traced far back into history. The answers and solutions also require more then instant relief and measures controlling symptoms and consequences if we are to get beyond just managing crisis, moving from crisis to crisis, always waiting until problems and difficulties develop into crisis before taking action.
The instant relief of the financial rescue packages, bailing out financial institutions and banks, guaranteeing bank deposits and inter-bank loans were necessary. Overhauling the global financial system, and tightening up financial market regulations and accounting practices to control the symptoms and consequences are also necessary. However, these measures and steps need to take place within the larger context and they must contribute to long-term development and change addressing the causes and developments behind the global financial crisis. We need to deal with the problem of greed, what lies behind trying to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then we need, trying to meet unfulfilled mental needs in material-financial terms.
The answers and solutions require changing how we understand and manage human existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. We need to understand and manage existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive way, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. We must understand and manage them at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence. And we must understand and manage them from within the mind and mental existence.
We must understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and consider the conditions of existence and how to deal with them. We need to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in, our behaviour and actions. We need to understand and manage from the inside where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions.
It involves establishing the necessary internal mental conditions, in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other, with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Considering and making sense of our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Establishing and maintaining a sense of the human self, a sense of order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty and security where consciously we exist and act, in the mind and mental existence, about the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Meeting mental needs in the mind through individual mental work and effort. Dealing with change and changing conditions, demands and challenges in the mind and mental existence when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger problems and difficulties.
It requires engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, change, correcting and improving individual understanding, mental powers and ability, mental skills and practices, mental work and effort, in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, changing, correcting and improving whenever necessary or required the understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them, the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behavior and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.
Changing how we understand and manage existence and development, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside requires education and training in conceptual and mental development and growth. Developing individually the necessary conceptual foundation and mental capacity. Developing the knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices, and engaging in the mental work and effort necessary to understand and manage the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.
Nature of the Crisis
The sub-prime mortgage crisis consisted of mortgages being sold to people not in a position to repay them. They were sold to people who lacked the necessary long-term, stable income to pay back the mortgages they took on. People who lacked any assets and who did not have sufficient income to pay even the monthly interests on their mortgages. The results were growing mortgage defaults and foreclosures. In turn which led to a drop in real estate prices, a loss in the value of repossessed houses, and a loss of value of the equity behind the mortgages.
How did the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States lead to the global financial crisis, pushing banks and financial institutions around the world close to insolvency?
The sub-prime mortgages were securitized, translated into financial securities, asset-backed securities, which were sold around the world. Translating debts into securities that are sold as investments is a long established practice in the financial sector, selling rights to future cash flows, in this case mortgage payments, to raise capital for further investment. In addition to mortgages, car loans and credit card loans or debts are routinely securitized, translated into investment products that are sold at the market to raise capital for further loans and investments. Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) are the principle institutions in the United States to expand the secondary market for securitized mortgages to raise capital for expanding mortgage demands. The securitized sub-prime mortgages were bundled together with other securities into investment products that were sold around the world to institutional investors looking to increase profits.
Banks and financial institutions moreover tend to operate on leverage, borrowing money to invest in the financial market, in securities to increase their profits. They leverage or borrow beyond their capital or equity, leaving them over-extended. Many banks and financial institutions to increase their profits had debt loads many times larger than their assets or capital. Goldman Sachs, for example, used about $40 billion of equity or capital as the foundation for $1.1 trillion in investment, while Merrill Lynch, the most leveraged, had $1 trillion of investment on around $30 billion of capital. In addition, to increase their profits financial institutions engage in risky investment schemes and strategies, such as margin buying, short-selling, derivatives, hedge-funds, etc. When a crisis hits anywhere in the system and they cannot realize a profit on their investments, banks and financial institutions find themselves short of money to meet their financial obligations.
In addition to these practices massive funds are taken out of the system at every point, commission fees to sell sub-prime mortgages, fees for the initial mortgage loans, fees for the securitization of the sub-prime mortgages, transaction fees, and financial management fees, as well as large salaries bonuses for executives and traders of the financial institutions and banks. When the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit financial institutions and banks that had invested in securities, which included securitized sub-prime mortgages, found themselves in a cash crisis, pushing them to the edge of insolvency and bankruptcy.
The problem was everyone from sub-prime mortgage holders to banks and financial institutions overextended themselves financially. Committing themselves financially beyond their means and abilities, to a point where they could no longer meet their financial obligations. Speculating on doubtful future income. The growing rate of defaults by sub-prime mortgage holders, foreclosure on their houses and the subsequent drop in real estate prices rippled through the whole financial system hitting everyone, including financial institutions and banks that were heavily overextended. It deflated the value of investment assets leading to a cash crisis, insufficient cash flows to meet financial obligations.
Causes behind the Crisis
The causes behind the crisis it is suggested lie in unregulated financial and monetary markets, an out of date monetary and financial system and institutions. Financial and monetary market rules and regulations, accounting practices and an international financial system that are out of date in a globalizing world. A financial system, market rules and regulations that do not reflect a changing world of globalization, global financial flows, trade and exchange, and increasingly high-risk investment strategies and activities by financial institutions and banks.
At bottom what lies behind sub-prime mortgages and high risk financial investments strategies and practices, the perception is, is greed, an excessive desire to acquire or possess more in material-financial wealth, goods and values than one needs or deserves, leading to corruption and fraud. Questionable and fraudulent investment activities, cutthroat competition, so the argument, is driven by unrestrained and out of control greed for ever-higher profits.
Greed, the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then one needs, is viewed as part of human nature. Something we cannot really control or do much about, beyond trying to control it through rules, regulations, morals and ethics, external rules and regulations and a set of moral and ethical standards by which to live. In reality, while greed is part of our nature, we are not driven by nature to act on greed, an urge to acquire more in material-financial goods and wealth than we need. Although greed is something we are capable of, it does not explain why we act on it. We are not driven by nature to do so. The question is why do we act on greed? What lies behind and drives the urge to acquire and possess more in material-financial goods and wealth then we need? This is where the real causes, as well as the answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie.
The urge to acquire and possess more than we require must be driven by some unfulfilled natural or basic needs. The question is, what unfulfilled needs do we try to meet through acquiring and possessing more in material-financial resources, goods and wealth than we need, and why are we unable or fail to meet them? The answer lies in how we understand and manage human existence and development. Specifically, it lies in how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. It lies in how we understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. The mind and mental existence is where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what individually we do and engage in. It is where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions. What takes place and what we do in the mind and mental existence defines and governs how we understand the conditions, demands and challenges of our existence and the world around us and how we deal with them. It defines and governs how we conduct ourselves, how we connect, communicate and cooperate with each other and how we relate and interact with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment.
The answer to what drives us to act on greed lies in failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage the role and responsibility in our mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage. As a result we try to meet non-material mental needs that we must meet in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, externally through the possession, accumulation and consumption of material-financial resources, goods and values. The consequences are growing unmet mental needs, leading to a never satisfied, growing and accelerating urge for material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values.
Traditionally we understand and manage existence and development from the top down and from the outside in, in an externalized, fragmented, generalized and dissociated way in the abstract. We understand and manage existence and development, demands and challenges, problems and difficulties, change and changing conditions, everything we face and we have to deal with, we do and we engage in, from the human-created socio-cultural, political, economic, scientific and technological level down to the level of the natural conditions of existence and the individual. We understand and manage the world around us, from within different, competing and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, conventions and practices, to understand and manage ourselves, the mind and mental existence. We divide and separate an integrated, related and interacting reality into different issues, subject matters, disciplines, fields of study and areas of human activity, specialization and expertise, each defined and governed by different and competing assumptions, objectives, approaches and practices.
We fail to establish the necessary internal mental conditions before engaging and dealing with external conditions and the world around us. Instead, we try to create the ideal external, socio-cultural and physical-material conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance. We try collectively to create externally in the world around us what by nature we must establish individually in the mind and mental existence.
We fail to establish a sense of self, a sense of order and stability, clarity and coherence, certainty and security internally in the mind and mental existence where we are in charge and in control. Instead we try to establish them externally in the world around us. We do not deal with feelings of disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety and frustration where they occur, in the mind and mental existence, but externally in the world around us. We try to deal with them through managing, controlling and directing the world around us and the accumulation, possession, control and consumption of socio-cultural positions, roles, functions, power and prestige, and material-financial wealth, resources, goods and values. In the process we meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms, instead of meeting them in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort.
The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis are the same causes and developments that lie behind the environmental, cultural, political and social problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts and confrontations, as well as growing mental health problems we face today. Failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside, and trying to meet non-material mental needs in socio-cultural and material-financial terms. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation over different and conflicting socio-cultural beliefs, views, values, convention and practices, different ways of understanding and managing existence and development, different ways of understanding the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Leading to competition, conflict and confrontation, within and across societies, over the possession, control, accumulation and consumption of natural resources and material-financial goods, values and wealth. Leading to cultural, social and political problems, difficulties and crisis, conflicts and confrontations.
Mental health problems in turn are the results of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence from the inside. Failing to understand and manage where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and must consider the conditions of existence and the world around us. Failing to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, leading to persisting and growing mental disorder and instability, doubt and confusion, uncertainty and insecurity, feelings of worry, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration and depression.
The environmental problems, difficulties and crisis we face are the result of exploiting natural material resources and interfering in nature and the natural environment beyond what is required to manage and sustain human existence. They are the result of meeting non-material mental needs in material ways and trying to create externally in the world around us what we must establish and maintain in the mind and mental existence. They are the result of failing to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in. Failing to meet non-material mental needs in the mind and mental existence through individual mental work and effort, we exploit natural resources beyond actual human material needs. Failing to establish and maintain the necessary internal mental conditions, we interfere in nature, natural forces, processes and developments and we degrade the natural environment trying to rearrange, control and direct the world around us, nature and the natural environment. Trying to create the ideal external conditions of an ordered, stable, secure and predictable world around us of easy material abundance, to control, overcome and move beyond the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence we must deal with in the mind and mental existence.
The causes and developments behind the global financial crisis also lie behind the resurgence of religion, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and religious-cultural conflicts and confrontations. The promise of the Enlightenment, science and the scientific approach leading to improvements in the human condition and human affairs through a better understanding and control of the natural world, nature and the natural environment, did not materialize. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century we experience growing cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, difficulties, crises and instability. The perception is the answers and solutions to the human condition and improving human affairs do not lie in science. Instead, we need to return to religion, the only other alternative. The problems and difficulties we face today are seen to be the result and consequences of disconnecting science from religion. While science can tell us about the material world, its structure and workings, natural forces, processes and developments, so the argument, it cannot explain the purpose and direction of life and or tell us how to behave and act.
In reality, the problems, difficulties, conflicts and confrontations, crises and instabilities in human affairs lie in the failure to understand and manage the mind and mental existence, our role and responsibility in them. The failure to improve the human condition does not lie in science or disconnecting science from religion. It lies in failing to understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and where we must consider the conditions of existence. It lies in failing to understand and manage where we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what takes place and what we do. Be actively engaged and take responsibility for the beliefs, views and understanding we develop, on which we rely and how we develop them. The choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, and the behaviour and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them. The problems, difficulties and crises, conflicts, confrontations and instabilities lie in trying to meet non-material mental needs in physical-material ways, and creating externally in the world around us, in socio-cultural and physical-material terms what we must establish and maintain individually in the mind and mental existence. With an expanding global human population it leads to growing cultural, political, social and economic competition, conflict and confrontation, problems, difficulties and crises. It leads to growing environmental problems and difficulties, and accelerated exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, growing interference in and degradation of the natural environment.
Direction of the Answers and Solutions to the Crisis
The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis lie in changing how we understand and manage existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. Changing how traditionally we understand and manage human existence and development, how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence also is the direction of the answers and solutions addressing the cultural, religious, political, social, economic and environmental problems, conflicts and confrontations we face.
The answers and solutions to the global financial crisis require more than instant relief and measures to control symptoms and consequences. They require addressing the underlying causes and developments. Particularly if the answers and solutions of today are not to become the causes of the problems, difficulties and crisis of tomorrow, as has always been the case in the past, as evidenced by the bust and boom cycles of the past that can be traced far back into history. The answers and solutions also require more then instant relief and measures controlling symptoms and consequences if we are to get beyond just managing crisis, moving from crisis to crisis, always waiting until problems and difficulties develop into crisis before taking action.
The instant relief of the financial rescue packages, bailing out financial institutions and banks, guaranteeing bank deposits and inter-bank loans were necessary. Overhauling the global financial system, and tightening up financial market regulations and accounting practices to control the symptoms and consequences are also necessary. However, these measures and steps need to take place within the larger context and they must contribute to long-term development and change addressing the causes and developments behind the global financial crisis. We need to deal with the problem of greed, what lies behind trying to acquire and possess more in material-financial wealth then we need, trying to meet unfulfilled mental needs in material-financial terms.
The answers and solutions require changing how we understand and manage human existence and development, particularly how we understand and manage the mind and mental existence. We need to understand and manage existence and development from the ground up and from the inside out, at a fundamental level, in their essence, in depth and detail, in a comprehensive way, a differentiated, but integrated, connected and related way. We must understand and manage them at the level of the natural conditions of existence, which are common to all human beings and which in the first instance define and govern our existence. And we must understand and manage them from within the mind and mental existence.
We must understand and manage from the inside where we consciously exist and act, where we experience, become aware and consider the conditions of existence and how to deal with them. We need to understand and manage where individually we are in charge and in control, where we must actively be engaged and take responsibility for what we do and we engage in, our behaviour and actions. We need to understand and manage from the inside where we make choices and decisions, where we define aims, goals and objectives, and where we must consider, plan, organize and manage our behaviour and actions.
It involves establishing the necessary internal mental conditions, in everything we do and we engage in, before engaging and dealing with external conditions, with each other, with the world around us, with nature and the natural environment. Considering and making sense of our experience, the perceptions, sensations and feelings that enter the mind and awareness, the conditions that lie behind them and how to deal with them. Establishing and maintaining a sense of the human self, a sense of order and stability, clarity of mind and understanding, a sense of certainty and security where consciously we exist and act, in the mind and mental existence, about the conditions, demands and challenges of existence and the world around us, and how to deal with them. Meeting mental needs in the mind through individual mental work and effort. Dealing with change and changing conditions, demands and challenges in the mind and mental existence when only a minimum in mental work, effort and adjustment are required and before they develop into larger problems and difficulties.
It requires engaging in a process of continuous, life-long conceptual and mental self-development and growth. Constantly reconsidering, updating, change, correcting and improving individual understanding, mental powers and ability, mental skills and practices, mental work and effort, in light of change and changing conditions. Reconsidering, updating, changing, correcting and improving whenever necessary or required the understanding, mental powers and abilities, mental skills and practices we develop, on which we rely, how we develop and use them, the choices and decisions we make and how we make them, the aims, goals and objectives we pursue and how we define them, the behavior and actions in which we engage and how we plan, organize and manage them.
Changing how we understand and manage existence and development, understanding and managing the mind and mental existence from the inside requires education and training in conceptual and mental development and growth. Developing individually the necessary conceptual foundation and mental capacity. Developing the knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the natural conditions, demands and challenges of existence. Developing, exercising and practicing the natural mental potential, individual natural mental powers and abilities, necessary mental skills and practices, and engaging in the mental work and effort necessary to understand and manage the role and responsibility in the mind and mental existence that by nature are individually ours to understand and manage.
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